In this chapter you will learn how to use Poser 8 by Smith Micro to create custom animations and poses for Second Life. The contents are as follows:
Set up - downloading Second Life avatar models into Poser
Priorities - the "layers" that determine which animations will play
Creating a Pose - creating "still" animations such as standing and sitting and how to upload to Second Life
Creating an Animation - creating moving animations such as walking and how to upload to Second Life
Poseballs - objects inside which you can place animations
Animation Override - a program that lets you override default animations
Set up
First you need to get the avatar models into Poser.
1. Click here to download the zipped file called "avatar_mesh". The file contents are pictured below.
2. Open the Poser file titled "Poser 8" for Macs or "Poser 8 Content" for Windows. Go to Runtime>Libraries>Character.
3. Go back to your avatar_mesh file. Copy and paste the folder called "SL Avatar" into the the Character folder.
Now, both the female and male avatar models will show up in the character list in Poser's Library for you to make custom poses and animations.
Priorities
If you want to run multiple animations at a time you need to know how to use priority levels. In Second Life the priorities range from 0 (lowest) to 4 (highest).
Priority 0: used for internal animations and meant to be easily overridden by other animations
Priority 1: also used for internal animations, Priority 1 is commonly used to put facial expressions and viewer-generated animations as priority 1.
Priority 2: most used for stands put in Animations Overridders
Priority 3: good for walking, sitting, and flying animations
Priority 4: used for poseballs and other "special" animations such as dances
When multiple animations are triggered, the highest priority animation will show. If multiple animations have the same priority, the most recently started one will play. Unfortunately, having competing animations is very common since many people give their common walking animations a priority 4. This can result in awkwardness when you are trying to use a special priority 4 animation. Be mindful when setting the priority of your animation.
3. It is very important that you do not change or move the avatar in the first frame. If the world is ending, still do not move the avatar in the first frame!
4. Move the scrubber (the yellow triangle) over to the second frame or click "0001" and type "2" to go to the second frame. This is the frame where you will make the pose. If the world is ending, you can change the avatar in the second frame and be happy.
5. Make your pose. The illustration, below, is a ground sitting pose, but you can do whatever you like.
6. When you ae done, click the play button at the bottom left of the screen. It should look like your avatar is suffering the world's worst seizure. This is good. Poser is playing and showing both frames; however, Second Life plays but does not show the first frame.
7. Go to the File menu and click Export > BVH motion. In the Import Options box have "Scale automatically" selected; click ok and save it.
8. Open Second Life. Open your Inventory. Click the plus icon at the bottom of the menu, then go to Upload>Animation. Find your BVH file and open it.
9. When the upload animation box appears, check "loop" and play the animation. You should see the scrubber break the speed of light, but the avatar should be doing the pose without any "seizures."
10. You can select what hand pose or expression you want to use, rename it, and give it a description. We suggest leaving the priority of 3. When you are ready, click Upload. This will cost L$10.
Good luck with your posing in Second Life!
Creating an Animation
Unlike poses, animations actually animate your avatar. Common animations are walking, running, and flying. In this tutorial we will make a walking animation using Poser's Walk Designer. Then we will save it in the BVH (Biovision Hierarchy character animation) file format and upload the BVH file to Second Life.
1. Start Poser and bring out your Second Life model by selecting it and clicking the single check mark. A couple of dialog boxes may come up. Leave everything unchecked and click ok.
2. Go to the Window menu and open the Walk Designer.
3. Next, you need to replace the Poser model with the Second Life model. Click Figure Type. Go to your "Poser 8" or "Poser 8 Content" file and go to Runtime>Libraries>Character>SL Avatar. Select either the female or male .cr2 documents and click Open. Walk designer will begin to load the model.
4. In Blend Styles, use the sliders to make your walking (or running) animation. Be sure not to overuse the sliders. Overuse of the sliders can make the animation look funky, so don't over do it unless funky is what you are aiming for.
5. Press the Walk button to preview what the walk animation will look like. If the looks wrong to you, keep adjusting the sliders until you have the animation you want. It is also a good idea to view the preview from different angles. You can do this by pressing 3/4, Slide, Front, or Top. You can also use the tweak sliders at the bottom to make subtle adjustments to the animation.
6. In this case, a funky animation was totally needed. When you are finished click Apply.
7. The Apply Walk box should appear. Select "Walk in place", change the Cycle repetitions to 2, and change End frame to 60. This will have the animation walk two strides before looping back again.
A different way to do this is set it to 1 repetition and put the End frame at 30. That will set the animation to one stride. When looped both ways look the same, but having one repetition make a smaller file size. I put two repetitions in to compare the second stride in the animation to the beginning and end frames to make sure the looping looks the way it should.
8. Enter 2 in Start frame and add 1 + End frame number. This will move the entire animation over one frame. This way the first frame is untouched and the model is still in the T-pose. This allows Second Life to read the first frame and correctly align the animation to the model, preventing your model from walking off axis. When uploaded to Second Life, the first frame will not be seen and the animation should loop smoothly. In "Create Keyframes in:" select layer. This will allow you to make adjustments should you feel the need to do so.
9. Click OK and close the Walk Designer. Before playing the animation we need to make sure it is looping. At the bottom of the screen beneath the play controls you should see "Loop". Make sure the dot is highlighted and play the animation.
10. Again it would be wise to look at the animation from different angles to make sure it is the way you want it. If something is wrong, go back and open the Walk Designer again. If everything checks out, go to File Menu>Export>BVH motion. In the Import Options box have "Scale Automatically" selected, click ok and save the file.
11. Open Second Life and open your Inventory. Click the plus icon and the bottom of the menu, then go to Upload>Animation. Find your BVH file and open it.
12. The upload animation box should appear. Bring the priority level to 3 or 4, so it overrides the default animations on the avatar. Check the Loop box. Play the animation to make sure it works correctly.
12. Click Upload. This will cost L$10.
There you go! You have your own custom animation!
Poseballs
Poseballs are prims that contain one or more animations. When an avatar "sits" on the poseball, the animation (or animations) the prim contains will play.
Virtually all poseballs are made using a sphere, hence the name, but it does not matter what prim you use. It is also commonplace to color the poseballs blue (male) or red or pink (female) to tell which gender the poseball is for.
In this section, you will learn how to make a simple poseball that plays one animation. You will be using scripting, provided here. However, you will need to supply yourself with the animations.
1. Open Second Life, then open the Build Window and create a prim, preferably a sphere, and name it. In the Build Window click on the Content tab. Find your animation in your inventory and drag and drop it into the Contents folder. In my infinite laziness, I will just use the animation I created in the previous section. I suggest using a priority 4 animation.
2. Next we will need to make a script that plays the animation when the avatar sits on the object. Click New Script and it should give out a friendly "Hello, Avatar". For this tutorial, that greeting is to be treated as a war cry and threat. Open the new script, wherein lies the enemy text (hostile and extremely dangerous) that needs to be annihilated. Delete it. All of it. Show no mercy.
3. Now you need to put in the text that we want. Copy and paste the following into Second Life:
changed(integer change) { key id = llAvatarOnSitTarget(); if(change & CHANGED_LINK) { if (id != NULL_KEY && g_LastAvatar == NULL_KEY) { g_LastAvatar = id; if (!(llGetPermissions() & PERMISSION_TRIGGER_ANIMATION)) { llRequestPermissions(id, PERMISSION_TRIGGER_ANIMATION); } } if (id == NULL_KEY && g_LastAvatar != NULL_KEY) { if (llGetPermissions() & PERMISSION_TRIGGER_ANIMATION) { llStopAnimation(g_Animation); } llResetScript(); } } }
run_time_permissions(integer perm) { if (!(perm & PERMISSION_TRIGGER_ANIMATION)) { llInstantMessage(g_LastAvatar, "Permissions are Required."); llUnSit(g_LastAvatar); } llStartAnimation(g_Animation); } }
4. Notice at the beginning of the script it says "play animation" and "animation name". Change the "animation name" with the name of the animation you put in the contents folder. For example, I need to put in "funky walk". Be sure to type in the name EXACTLY as the file name is. Changing "play animation" will change the "sit" text you see when you right-click the object. You can change "play animation" to whatever you like.
5. When you are done click Save. Give it some time to "read" the script and if everything checks out it should say "Save complete." If something is not right, delete all the text and go back to step 3. When everything is okay, close the script.
6. Right click on your poseball and check to see if your "sit" text has changed. Some letters may be cut off on the menu since the menu can only hold so many letters. Go ahead and "sit" on your new poseball. You may have to rotate, reposition, and resize - you have to get off your poseball to resize - your poseball once you realize how goofy it is when you sit on it, like mine did.
animations write-up DRAFT
In this chapter you will learn how to use Poser 8 by Smith Micro to create custom animations and poses for Second Life. The contents are as follows:
Set up
First you need to get the avatar models into Poser.
1. Click here to download the zipped file called "avatar_mesh". The file contents are pictured below.
2. Open the Poser file titled "Poser 8" for Macs or "Poser 8 Content" for Windows. Go to Runtime>Libraries>Character.
3. Go back to your avatar_mesh file. Copy and paste the folder called "SL Avatar" into the the Character folder.
Now, both the female and male avatar models will show up in the character list in Poser's Library for you to make custom poses and animations.
Priorities
If you want to run multiple animations at a time you need to know how to use priority levels. In Second Life the priorities range from 0 (lowest) to 4 (highest).
Priority 0: used for internal animations and meant to be easily overridden by other animations
Priority 1: also used for internal animations, Priority 1 is commonly used to put facial expressions and viewer-generated animations as priority 1.
Priority 2: most used for stands put in Animations Overridders
Priority 3: good for walking, sitting, and flying animations
Priority 4: used for poseballs and other "special" animations such as dances
When multiple animations are triggered, the highest priority animation will show. If multiple animations have the same priority, the most recently started one will play. Unfortunately, having competing animations is very common since many people give their common walking animations a priority 4. This can result in awkwardness when you are trying to use a special priority 4 animation. Be mindful when setting the priority of your animation.
3. It is very important that you do not change or move the avatar in the first frame. If the world is ending, still do not move the avatar in the first frame!
4. Move the scrubber (the yellow triangle) over to the second frame or click "0001" and type "2" to go to the second frame. This is the frame where you will make the pose. If the world is ending, you can change the avatar in the second frame and be happy.
5. Make your pose. The illustration, below, is a ground sitting pose, but you can do whatever you like.
6. When you ae done, click the play button at the bottom left of the screen. It should look like your avatar is suffering the world's worst seizure. This is good. Poser is playing and showing both frames; however, Second Life plays but does not show the first frame.
7. Go to the File menu and click Export > BVH motion. In the Import Options box have "Scale automatically" selected; click ok and save it.
8. Open Second Life. Open your Inventory. Click the plus icon at the bottom of the menu, then go to Upload>Animation. Find your BVH file and open it.
9. When the upload animation box appears, check "loop" and play the animation. You should see the scrubber break the speed of light, but the avatar should be doing the pose without any "seizures."
10. You can select what hand pose or expression you want to use, rename it, and give it a description. We suggest leaving the priority of 3. When you are ready, click Upload. This will cost L$10.
Good luck with your posing in Second Life!
Creating an Animation
Unlike poses, animations actually animate your avatar. Common animations are walking, running, and flying. In this tutorial we will make a walking animation using Poser's Walk Designer. Then we will save it in the BVH (Biovision Hierarchy character animation) file format and upload the BVH file to Second Life.
1. Start Poser and bring out your Second Life model by selecting it and clicking the single check mark. A couple of dialog boxes may come up. Leave everything unchecked and click ok.
2. Go to the Window menu and open the Walk Designer.
3. Next, you need to replace the Poser model with the Second Life model. Click Figure Type. Go to your "Poser 8" or "Poser 8 Content" file and go to Runtime>Libraries>Character>SL Avatar. Select either the female or male .cr2 documents and click Open. Walk designer will begin to load the model.
4. In Blend Styles, use the sliders to make your walking (or running) animation. Be sure not to overuse the sliders. Overuse of the sliders can make the animation look funky, so don't over do it unless funky is what you are aiming for.
5. Press the Walk button to preview what the walk animation will look like. If the looks wrong to you, keep adjusting the sliders until you have the animation you want. It is also a good idea to view the preview from different angles. You can do this by pressing 3/4, Slide, Front, or Top. You can also use the tweak sliders at the bottom to make subtle adjustments to the animation.
6. In this case, a funky animation was totally needed. When you are finished click Apply.
7. The Apply Walk box should appear. Select "Walk in place", change the Cycle repetitions to 2, and change End frame to 60. This will have the animation walk two strides before looping back again.
A different way to do this is set it to 1 repetition and put the End frame at 30. That will set the animation to one stride. When looped both ways look the same, but having one repetition make a smaller file size. I put two repetitions in to compare the second stride in the animation to the beginning and end frames to make sure the looping looks the way it should.
8. Enter 2 in Start frame and add 1 + End frame number. This will move the entire animation over one frame. This way the first frame is untouched and the model is still in the T-pose. This allows Second Life to read the first frame and correctly align the animation to the model, preventing your model from walking off axis. When uploaded to Second Life, the first frame will not be seen and the animation should loop smoothly. In "Create Keyframes in:" select layer. This will allow you to make adjustments should you feel the need to do so.
9. Click OK and close the Walk Designer. Before playing the animation we need to make sure it is looping. At the bottom of the screen beneath the play controls you should see "Loop". Make sure the dot is highlighted and play the animation.
10. Again it would be wise to look at the animation from different angles to make sure it is the way you want it. If something is wrong, go back and open the Walk Designer again. If everything checks out, go to File Menu>Export>BVH motion. In the Import Options box have "Scale Automatically" selected, click ok and save the file.
11. Open Second Life and open your Inventory. Click the plus icon and the bottom of the menu, then go to Upload>Animation. Find your BVH file and open it.
12. The upload animation box should appear. Bring the priority level to 3 or 4, so it overrides the default animations on the avatar. Check the Loop box. Play the animation to make sure it works correctly.
12. Click Upload. This will cost L$10.
There you go! You have your own custom animation!
Poseballs
Poseballs are prims that contain one or more animations. When an avatar "sits" on the poseball, the animation (or animations) the prim contains will play.
Virtually all poseballs are made using a sphere, hence the name, but it does not matter what prim you use. It is also commonplace to color the poseballs blue (male) or red or pink (female) to tell which gender the poseball is for.
In this section, you will learn how to make a simple poseball that plays one animation. You will be using scripting, provided here. However, you will need to supply yourself with the animations.
1. Open Second Life, then open the Build Window and create a prim, preferably a sphere, and name it. In the Build Window click on the Content tab. Find your animation in your inventory and drag and drop it into the Contents folder. In my infinite laziness, I will just use the animation I created in the previous section. I suggest using a priority 4 animation.
2. Next we will need to make a script that plays the animation when the avatar sits on the object. Click New Script and it should give out a friendly "Hello, Avatar". For this tutorial, that greeting is to be treated as a war cry and threat. Open the new script, wherein lies the enemy text (hostile and extremely dangerous) that needs to be annihilated. Delete it. All of it. Show no mercy.
3. Now you need to put in the text that we want. Copy and paste the following into Second Life:
string g_SitText = "play animation";
string g_Animation = "animation name";
vector g_SitOffset = <0.00, 0.00, 0.001>;
key g_LastAvatar = NULL_KEY;
default
{
state_entry()
{
llSetSitText(g_SitText);
llSitTarget(g_SitOffset, ZERO_ROTATION);
}
changed(integer change)
{
key id = llAvatarOnSitTarget();
if(change & CHANGED_LINK)
{
if (id != NULL_KEY && g_LastAvatar == NULL_KEY)
{
g_LastAvatar = id;
if (!(llGetPermissions() & PERMISSION_TRIGGER_ANIMATION))
{
llRequestPermissions(id, PERMISSION_TRIGGER_ANIMATION);
}
}
if (id == NULL_KEY && g_LastAvatar != NULL_KEY)
{
if (llGetPermissions() & PERMISSION_TRIGGER_ANIMATION)
{
llStopAnimation(g_Animation);
}
llResetScript();
}
}
}
run_time_permissions(integer perm)
{
if (!(perm & PERMISSION_TRIGGER_ANIMATION))
{
llInstantMessage(g_LastAvatar, "Permissions are Required.");
llUnSit(g_LastAvatar);
}
llStartAnimation(g_Animation);
}
}
4. Notice at the beginning of the script it says "play animation" and "animation name". Change the "animation name" with the name of the animation you put in the contents folder. For example, I need to put in "funky walk". Be sure to type in the name EXACTLY as the file name is. Changing "play animation" will change the "sit" text you see when you right-click the object. You can change "play animation" to whatever you like.
5. When you are done click Save. Give it some time to "read" the script and if everything checks out it should say "Save complete." If something is not right, delete all the text and go back to step 3. When everything is okay, close the script.
6. Right click on your poseball and check to see if your "sit" text has changed. Some letters may be cut off on the menu since the menu can only hold so many letters. Go ahead and "sit" on your new poseball. You may have to rotate, reposition, and resize - you have to get off your poseball to resize - your poseball once you realize how goofy it is when you sit on it, like mine did.
RESUME EDITING HERE